A Palace for Two

Apartment Therapy January Cure: Day 1

When my friend Lindsay introduced me to Apartment Therapy in college, I fell in love. The two of us would sit around looking at pictures of beautiful houses and apartments, imagining what our places would look like when we weren’t so gross and college-like. It was like moving out of Worcester would magically make us cleaner and more organized and better at life. Yeah. Right.

Okay, so I guess it worked a little bit. When we bought our house, I was OBSESSED with AT, oogling house tours, picking paint colors, planning full-on demolitions of our house. While some of the ideas actually made it into our house (blue dining room! painted chandelier!), most of them were (and still are) pipe dreams. Over the past few months, I’ve become (slightly) more realistic about our space, our budget, and what will and won’t work. I’ve also come to terms with “our style” and how that compares to “what is correct according to interior designers” and “what is popular” (they’re often not the same). But guess what! It’s our house! We’ll do what we want!

I actually read an article on there once about how you shouldn’t put family pictures and personal artifacts on the first floor. Because no one wants to look at pictures of your kids and dogs and family vacations. Funny, because I’m pretty sure that I live in my house and I’ll spend more time there than any guest ever would. And if I want to look at pictures of me and Jesse frolicking through concretecornfields during our first road trip, then I sure as hell am going to do that.

Other than articles like that, AT is pretty great. This year, I noticed they’re doing this thing called January Cure. From what I gather, it’s a way of getting the year off to a good start, getting your house in order for the upcoming year. Since we’re finally settling in to the house and things are generally where we want them to be, I thought this would be a fun project to tackle. Also, it is winter and I have a really hard time staying motivated in the winter, and every little project helps!

Day 1 of the January Cure is Make a List of Projects! I love lists. I also love lists of things that I will never accomplish. Dishes I want to cook. Cakes I want to make. Places I want to visit. Things that need to be fixed in the house. Things I want to do in the house. Trust me, I am AWESOME at making lists. The best thing about Day 1? They tell you not to do anything! Just make a list! That is totally doable.

To make the list, you are advised to walk through each room in the house, making notes on any trouble spots organized by room. Note each area or item that needs a good cleaning, a de-cluttering or a re-organization. Then, go through the list and pick 3-5 things from each room as main focus points.

That’s it!

Walking through our house produced nothing that was unexpected. Everything on my list are things that I was planning on tackling over the next month or two anyway, so we’re all good!

Here’s my list:

PORCH

Wash floor and windows

Remove junk

Get a shoe rack

Paint it white

New front door

New light fixture

KITCHEN

Shelves for over table

Organize junk drawer

Get trash into a cabinet

Organize drawers and cabinets

Curtain over sink

New light fixtures

BATHROOM

Paint

Find a new mirror

Change hardware

New light fixture

Get a new bathroom rug & shower curtain

DINING ROOM

Build table and benches

Shelves

Finish curtains

Find new shades

LIVING ROOM

Paint

Rug

Ottoman

Hang artwork behind couch

New shades

HALLWAY & STAIRWELL

Paint

Hang pictures

New light fixtures

OFFICE

Rug

Chair

Curtains/shades

Get pictures off of the floor and onto the walls

New light fixture

SPARE BEDROOM

Make it more like a bedroom and less like storage

New lights

OUR BEDROOM

New dresser for Jesse

Rug

Paint

Space heater

Hang things on walls

New sheets

New light fixture

The awesome thing about this list is that every item on it is doable, just not in the month of January. These are all things that need to get done, at some point or another. The crossed-out items will have to wait until time, money, and weather allow, but everything else? I think I can do it!

The rooms I’m the most focused on are the living room and the bedroom. The office, if I have to, is completely off the list. Same goes for the spare bedroom (the only person who has been sleeping over is Jess, and she’s all about our couch). Now all I need is a little bit of motivation and a whole bunch of beer.

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5 thoughts on “Apartment Therapy January Cure: Day 1”

Well, that certainly is quite a list! Just pluck at one, one at a time and before you know it, you list will dwindle down. Just a word of caution….you might want to wait to have the beer AFTER you finish the task! lol

I share your enthusiasm for Apartment Therapy….I’ve been looking at unattainably beautiful house photos since forever 🙂 Since I live in India, I don’t have access to most “IN” design trends and I can’t afford them either – I work with what I have 🙂

You should totally put personal pictures in your house – I’m a firm believer of personalizing your living space – where else can we be just who we are! I don’t know how it is where you live, but in India – almost everyone who visits your house wants to see pictures of your family and friends and pets and vacations!!

Good luck on your project list!! Hope to read more posts on your progress with your home projects.

I agree about the family pictures! It is similar here, most people I know really enjoy looking at family pictures. Your house isn’t supposed to be a museum…

I also think that working with what you have is way more rewarding than walking into an Ikea or Crate and Barrel and buying stylish things. It makes everything that much more “yours”. Good luck with the challenge!!